Haley's Stranger
by LilMusicalAuthor
Summary: an old friend of haleys comes into town. what happens when this mysterious stranger is a six foot two gorgeous guy? What will Nathan do...
1. Old Friends

**Author's Note: **So this is new for me. It's a fic based on Hailey. Surprise, surprise. It's a little bit of an AU and it takes place during season three.

He had no idea where he was going. He didn't know where she lived. It had been so long since he had been in Tree Hill and even then, he wasn't there long. He didn't know how he was going to find her but he had a feeling that he would. They hadn't talked on the phone in weeks and know he was just showing up. He would even settle for finding Lucas. At least he could tell him where she was.

She hadn't seen him in over a year and they hadn't talked in weeks, yet, there he was. She couldn't believe it. She just stood there shocked for a few seconds not believing what her eyes were trying to tell her. She blinked a few times, as if to see if her eyes were deceiving her.

"Haley? Hello! Earth to Haley! Are you ok?" It was Brooke trying to get her attention. Haley was too hypnotized by the strangely familiar stranger to snap out of it. As suddenly as he appeared, he went away. She was about to answer Brooke and say that nothing was wrong, when, she heard a voice from behind her.

"Why if it isn't little Haley Elizabeth James." She knew that heavy Australian accent anywhere.

"Joseph Anthony Parker!" she screamed before turning around and leaping in his arms.

Brooke and Peyton, who was also with them, watched from where they were standing.

"Looks like Tutor Girl got over Nathan," Brooke slyly commented.

"Yeah. Looks like. Listen I'll meet you at Karen's. I don't think I can stand here and watch… that," Peyton gestured over to Haley and the extremely gorgeous looking stranger that were now laughing like they had been friends forever. What they didn't know, was that they had.

Haley didn't move to Tree Hill until she was about fourteen. Before that, she lived in a town about three hours south. They had met when they were about five because their mothers were close. They continued on with their friendship long after their mothers grew apart. They knew each other inside and out and were both devastated when they discovered that Haley had to move. That was two years ago, though, and they were still the best of friends. He had met Lucas only a few times but they had gotten along great.

They spent a few minutes talking about how each other looked great, the fact that he was staying all summer, and how they hadn't seen each other in over a year until Haley realized that Brooke had been standing about ten feet away eyeing him with the look she used when she saw something she wanted. Haley quickly pulled him over to introduce the two so she could just get it over with. If she didn't do it, she was sure that Brooke would end up embarrassing her. She just hoped that she didn't bring up Nathan. Haley had told Joseph everything about Nathan. Frankly, in Joseph's eyes, Nathan had caused Haley pain. That meant that Joseph wanted to cause Nathan pain. He was extremely protective over her and the fact that press 230 sort of helped in a fight. He grew up as a farm boy, working hard outside labor since he was six. He could easily take on Nathan and probably the rest of the team while he was at it. She made a mental note to talk to Joseph about it.

"Hey there," Brooke said in her I-want-that-one voice. Haley had to admit that Joseph was extremely attractive. With his deep blue eyes and careless dirty blond hair added onto his well sculpted body, he definitely turned some heads. Once he had been asked to model by a real modeling agent! Haley and some of her old friends were still giving him a hard time about that one.

"Brooke! This is my Joey!" Haley practically shouted. She had so much crap running through her head but she still couldn't confine her extreme excitement to finally see her "long lost" best friend.

"Actually, it's Joe," he said, scoring obvious bonus points with Brooke with his strong accent. Haley knew that she was the only one who was "allowed" to call him Joey and that was only because they had known each other when he carried the nick name as a kindergartener. He didn't mind when Haley called him Joey but if anyone else did, he went off. His friends and family and even Haley's family had all developed the habit of calling him Joe. He liked it better that way.

"Well, Joe, I'm Brooke." Brooke sure wasn't going to give up on this one. She didn't have the heart to tell her that she wasn't his type but she would soon figure it out. Since Brooke was one of those people with a really good heart once you got to know her, they would probably end up being good friends.

"Nice to meet you," he replied politely as he had been taught to do so while growing up.

"Well, we'll see you later Brooke," Haley said, hurrying off, practically pulling Joey by the arm.

When they got out of ear shot of Brooke, he leaned over and practically whispered in her ear, "What a whore!" The two of them just laughed and kept walking and talking, no particular destination in mind.

This was definitely going to be an interesting summer in Tree Hill.

**Sweets555: **Does Joey sound familiar? I wanted to name him Lucas except that would be kind of dumb seeing as there's already a Lucas in the story. Maybe I'll even throw in the other guys ;)(everybody else can ignore this since it wont make sense)


	2. Enter Nathan

**Author's Note: **Can anyone tell me how many brothers Haley really has? And if they've ever given out any info on them in the show. Like if Haley ever said how old they were or if she's ever said how old they were…?

After walking around for about forty-five minutes, they went back to Haley's house. Joey said hello to all of Haley's brothers except for one, Ray. There were two reasons why he didn't say hi to Ray. One, Ray wasn't there; two, Haley and her other brother made an agreement to never let Ray near Joey again after an unfortunate incident including an extremely drunk and angry brother. There were few things that Joey was afraid of and Ray was one of them. Ray had been the oldest of the children and had been living on his own for about five years. Everybody in Haley's family loved Joey except for Ray, for some reason. Nothing would probably ever happen if the two were in the same room again (not like Ray would notice since, chances are, he'd be too drunk to see), but it was just better not to take any chances.

­­­­­

_Brooke sure was acting weird, _he thought as he drove to Haley's house. Nathan wasn't exactly the nicest to Haley lately and he didn't want to be. Actually, he did want to be nice to her. It was killing him to keep blowing her off and to give her the cold shoulder. He loved her; he just didn't trust that she wouldn't run away this time. He needed to know that she would always be there for him. Growing up in the kind of home he did, he didn't exactly get much love. And it wasn't like his friends were much of a help, they didn't give a crap about him. They just hung around because girls hung around him; the girls just hung around him because he was popular; he was popular because he was a basketball star; and he was only a basketball star because his father wanted him to be. It wasn't his damn fault that his father had thrown out his knee and now had to live vicariously through Nathan. The truth was, Nathan would have given almost anything to be in Lucas' shoes. His mom loved him more than anything; he was her life and it was obvious that she would give him the world if she could. His friends cared about him and liked him despite his true personality. No, they liked him because of his personality. They went to his games and cheer him on when they wouldn't have been caught dead at a game before that. He didn't have a father forcing him to do what he wanted him to do and always looking over his shoulder. Lucas was the lucky one, and that pissed Nathan off. He wasn't supposed to be the lucky one. He was supposed to be the poor little untalented, fatherless street rat that everybody hated. He wasn't supposed to be the lucky one. Nathan would never tell anyone what he felt inside; about how he really did love Haley, how he was ragingly jealous of his half brother, and especially how he had tried to…

He quickly slammed on the brakes just in time to turn into Haley's driveway. He had to stop getting lost in his thoughts. He walked up the driveway and rang the doorbell. He was surprised to be greeted by a young man, probably in his early twenties. He just stood there confused, wondering if he had the wrong house. No, it couldn't be. He had come over too many times to mistake the house. But he was all caught up in his thoughts…

"Can I help you?" the young man asked. He looked irritated and it made Nathan wonder how many times he had said something before he finally snapped out of it. He was dressed in light blue jeans and a white t-shirt. His dark brown hair looked as if it had just been cut even thought it still hung down over his eyes. Nathan finally remembered that Haley had talked about having brothers when they had first met. _Great time to mention it, Haley, _he thought to himself, _the times when I actually never listened to anything you said. _

"Um, I'm here to see Haley," he finally was able to say.

"Oh, well come in, I guess." He moved aside and let Nathan through, then closed the door behind him.

"She's upstairs in her room." He continued while walking towards the stairs. Nathan expected that he should be following, but wasn't sure. He didn't know how to handle older brothers. All the girls that he dated were only children (at least as far as Nathan knew). He decided to take his chances and follow him up the stairs and it had seemed like he had made the right choice when he stopped in front of a closed door. He didn't bother knocking, but just opened it. He recognized it as Haley's room but there was no one in it.

"Oh, Haley," her assumed brother called out into the room. "Come out, come out where ever you are." He laughed to what seemed to be himself and then said, "Its ok Haley he's gone."

Nathan had no idea what he was talking about but at that exact moment the closet door flung open and two people flew out onto the floor, one on top of the other. The scarier part was that the person on the bottom was Haley. The other was some guy that Nathan had never seen before. He was dressed in faded jeans that looked like they had been naturally faded by being washed so many times instead of the faded jeans that Nathan wore that had been bought faded because faded jeans were 'in', and was wearing white shirt that had sleeves short enough to see the bulge of his extremely well shaped muscles. Nathan guessed that he could probably bench at least 180 while Nathan could only go as far as 150. The mystery man looked to be about his age and his not-quite-past-the-ears long dark blond hair hung in his face as he and Haley laughed hysterically. Nathan looked over at Haley's brother for some clue as to what's going on, but he was just laughing. He wasn't laughing as hard as them and he was more laughing _at _the two in a sidesplitting laughter attack, still on the floor, instead of whatever they were laughing about. He couldn't remember ever seeing Haley laugh like that. Sure she had laughed, but never like this. It didn't seem like her.

After a couple minutes, the laughter had seized slightly but no one in the room had moved from the position they were in; Nathan hadn't moved from the spot he had been standing and neither had Haley's brother while Haley was still lying on her back with some muscular, unknown man lying on top of her. He wasn't exactly on top of her; if he was putting all his weight on her he would probably squash her, it was more of a hover type of thing. Like he laid on top of her and then pushed himself up with his arms.

"Nathan! Oh, hi!" Haley laughed, finally noticing him as the mystery man rolled of her and was still laughing. Nathan had no idea of what could have been so funny that they would laugh for over five minutes.

"Can you hold on one minute?" she asked Nathan. She didn't wait for Nathan to answer.

"Where exactly is he?" she questioned her brother curiously.

"He left this morning actually," he replied. Still laughing, he suddenly looked like he was ready to run out of the room if needed. _Who are they talking about? And why does her brother all of a sudden look like he thinks Haley is gonna come after him any second? Did it have anything to do with him? _Nathan asked himself, his eyes drifting to the spot where the mystery man was still on the floor. As soon as Haley's brother spoke the words, though, he stopped his laughing and jilted his head up.

"What!" he scream along with Haley.

"You mean to tell me that I've been hiding and dodging someone all day that isn't even here anymore?" the man finally spoke. Nathan could sense the extremely heavy Australian accent in his voice. _An Australian accent is the sexiest thing a guy can have! _he remembered Brooke saying when she and Peyton had forced him to watch "Ten Things I Hate About You." It was a pretty dumb movie and he didn't see anything sexy about an Australian accent, but of course, he was a guy. He found himself wondering if Haley thought it was sexy. _Probably not, _he told himself He couldn't even imagine Haley saying the word sexy.

"Yeah. He left for school this morning," her brother replied, nonchalantly.

"Why didn't you tell us!" she screamed back, she looked furious and Nathan thought it was kind of cute.

"Well its funnier this way isn't it?" he laughed. "Well I gotta get going back to school. Bye lil sis. Bye Joey."

"See ya later Mike!" the mystery man --Joey-- said to Haley's brother --Mike. _How does some random guy know Haley's brother? And especially by name. Didn't Haley say she had like six brothers?_ This was all too confusing.

Mike left and Haley and Joey stood up.

"Hey, I'm Joey," Joey said and reached out his hand to shake Nathan's. The gesture startled Nathan but he took the hand. Joey had a strong grip. Not a grip that said "stay away from her" or "I'm gonna steal her from you" or even "stay out of my way." It was just a friendly handshake which confused Nathan even more.

"Nathan," he said back.

"Wait, Nathan? _The _Nathan?"

"Um, I guess so…"

"Well, let's just say that I've heard about you and…"

"Joey…" Haley said sternly. She thought it would be the perfect time to jump in and remind him of the deal they had before he said something to Nathan that _she_ would regret. They fought about Nathan for half an hour. _He _wanted to beat the crap out of the guy; while _she _wished that she had never mentioned him. They finally made a deal: he wouldn't beat the crap out of or say anything mean to Nathan and she would let Joey know everything else that she knew about him and would tell him whatever happened between them; the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

"Alright, alright," he simply replied.

"Why don't you go downstairs and watch TV? I'll be down in a few minutes," she asked trying to get him out of the room. She had no idea what was going through Nathan's head right now. For all she knew, he could think that Joey was some old boyfriend that she was getting back together with because she wouldn't wait for Nathan anymore. The more she thought about it the sooner she thought she should talk to Nathan.

"But…" he started to protest.

"Bye, Joey," she interrupted, pushing him out the door. Once he was out she was about to closed it when he popped his head in and said, "Be good you two… I'm watching…" Then Haley shoved his head out the door and closed it. She had to laugh though. He was cute when he was all protective-big-brother.

"Sorry about that," she apologized. "He can be a little over protective sometimes."

"So who is that anyway? Old boyfriend? New boyfriend?" he questioned unsurely.

"No!" she practically screamed back.

"No what?" Joey asked popping his head through the door again.

"Joey!" Haley laughed. "Get out of here before I push you down the stairs!"

"Oh, I'd like to see you try, Princess. I'd like to see you try," he teased back.

"Go!" she laughed shoving him out the door and finally locking it.

"Like I was saying: no, he's nothing like that. He's just an old friend. An old best friend actually. I've known him since I was five years old. I never told you about him?" she asked trying to pretend she had when it was obvious that she had purposely never mentioned him to anyone in Tree Hill except for Lucas.

"No…"

"Oh, well, I've known him forever and nothing is going on or will ever go on between us. He's like the big brother I never had."

"I thought you said you had six…"

"Actually it's five but you kinda know what I mean..."

"Sure."

"So… did you want to talk to me?"

"Actually Brooke said you wanted to talk to me…"

"Well, that's Brooke for you… I didn't exactly make it clear to her that Joey and I are just friends… I just wanted to get him away from her before she started to hit on him and then he said something mean…"

"Oh, I get it."

"So I'm sorry that…"

"Hey guys! What the hell are you doing up there!" came a call from downstairs. Haley just laughed at Joey's remark.

"I guess I should get downstairs."

"Yeah, hey, I should probably go."

They walked downstairs together and he left. She walked back to the living room where Joey was sitting on the couch: feet up, can of coke in one hand, bag of chips in the other. He was watching the football game and she just then realized how much she missed seeing him everyday; how they felt so comfortable in each other's houses, and how they watched out for one another… She ran towards him and jumped on him, then grabbed the bag of chips and curled up at his side, cuddling with him.

This was going to be the best summer ever…


	3. Getting Ready

**Author's Note: **So for everyone who asked: no, I'm pretty sure it's not gonna be a Naley. I'm not really sure where I'm gonna go with it but if I do what I'm pretty sure I'm gonna do, it's definitely not gonna be a Naley. But I don't know if I'm gonna do that or not so you'll just have to wait and see.

"My God, Haley!" Joey shouted from downstairs. "What in the hell is taking you so long?!"

"One sec!" she shouted back down. According to Haley; Joey was one of the most impatient people in the worlds. According to Joey; Haley was the slowest person in the world. Haley was upstairs getting ready to go to Tric with Joey. Haley was excited that she would finally have the chance to show Joey off to Peyton. She had a gut feeling that the two of them would definitely hit it off. They were both into the same kind of music and neither of them could stand the followers known as the populars. Peyton needed someone to take her mind off Jake, and Haley needed someone to keep Joey's attention so she could spend some time with Nathan.

"You are not coming!" he shouted up after about two seconds.

"I am too!" she shouted back, ready for another one of the arguments that was Joey.

"Are not!"

"How would you know?! It's only been like point two seconds!"

"It has not been point two seconds! It has been _at least _point two _minutes_ and if you had even started making the long and fateful trudge all the down the stairs, you would have been down here already!"

"My God! You are so whiny!" she said, ending the argument, as she finally walked down the stairs. She was wearing a tight, low-cut, black tank top and jeans that fit her just right with her hair down around her shoulders.

"Why, Love, you didn't have to get all dressed up for little ol' me," he said, noticing why it had took her so long upstairs.

"Well, I just want to look good. Just for you."

"Oh, really? This wouldn't have anything to do with Nathan then?"

"Nathan who?"

"Ooo, what happened? Did you two have a fight?" he asked getting excited.

"It's nothing. Now come on. You are going to be my date for tonight," she said, trying to cover up the fact that she and Nathan had had a fight. And it was a stupid fight nonetheless. Actually, she wasn't sure if it was a stupid fight or not. She didn't even know what they were fighting about. He started yelling, she defended herself, he walked out, and that was that. She was pretty sure he was drunk but she couldn't really tell. She just wanted to go to Tric and have some fun. "So do you like blondes?"

"Peyton, come on! It'll be fun!" Brooke screamed up the stair to Peyton, who refused to go to Tric tonight.

"I don't want to go, Brooke! I'm not in the mood. Just go without me."

"P. Sawyer! I am not going to go out and leave you here to sulk all night. You are coming _and _you are going to have a good time. Whether you like it or not!"

Peyton rolled over on her bed and starred at herself in the mirror. She had just gotten out of the shower and into some comfortable clothes. Why did she have to go out tonight? Why couldn't she just stay at home and watch a horror movie? Why did every teenager have to go out every Saturday night? She just had her heart broken. Why would she want to go out?

"Come on! Your broken heart will still be here when you get back. Let's go!" Peyton finally just sighed and got up. She was definitely not going to win this fight.

"Fine, Brooke. Let's go."

**Author's Note: **All right. I know its uber short but it's been so long since I started writing this that I don't remember the plot. It's also been so long since I wrote this that it turns out that it's really not my thing. I just wanted to put something up because I never get any good e-mail anymore but if you review, I will get good mail and be encouraged to write more! Yay me! But about the plot thing, tell me how it should go. Just e-mail me or leave a review (yay e-mail). If I don't get anyone telling me what to do with it I'm just gonna take it down. So give me anything and I'll probably do it.


	4. He Plays Bass

**Author's Note: **Alright. So you see how this works? You read a story of mine, you review it, I get reminded that the story exists, get sparked by inspiration, and WRITE ANOTHER CHAPTER!!! See? Simple right? So review!!!!

"So, I guess the two of you got along well last night." Joey just smiled. Haley had to beg Joe to take her home. She gave them as much time as possible but Brooke left after meeting some hot guy and Lucas got into a fight with Nathan. The only one who didn't leave her alone was Nathan. And that did not help. At all.

He wanted to talk and Haley just wasn't in the mood. All she really wanted to do was talk to Joey. He asked multiple times if it was alright that he was basically ditching her to talk to Peyton, but each time Haley just brushed it off and eventually just left the two of them alone.

After a couple of minutes, Haley was ready to leave. After a couple of hours, Joey finally drove them home.

Now they were lying on Peyton's bed discussing how much he liked her.

"She sort of looks like Christine. Don't you think?" Christine. Haley hadn't thought about her in a while. They used to be such good friends in middle school. Not that she thought about it, Haley hadn't really thought about any of her old friends in a long time. Now all the memories came rushing back.

"God. I haven't seen anyone in forever! What's going on with Christine anyway?"

"Pregnant." Christine? Pregnant? It was weird to think about. She still thought of Christine as the fourteen year old girl who would only eat ice cream out of a cone, never a bowl.

"No way!"

"Yup." Haley could hardly believe it. She decided to change the subject with someone else.

"Well what about Timothy?" Timothy was Christine's on-again-off-again boyfriend. The vicious circle finally ended when Timothy admitted that he was gay.

"Pretty good." Joey grinned. Whenever Joey grinned, it meant something was up.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. He's the one that got her pregnant." They both burst out laughing.

"No way!" Guess that ended the whole 'gay' faze.

"Yup."

"Okay, what about…" she tried to think of anyone else they hadn't talked about yet. "Ben?" Ah Ben. Ben was her first boyfriend. He was the boyfriend that every little girl gets in second or third grade. The one where you call each other boyfriend and girlfriends when talking to your friends, but you never actually go anywhere near them. They broke up after about two days.

"Hang on." And with that, Joey left the bed and gone to his bag.

The last time Haley saw Ben they were fourteen. He was weird and a little bit slimy. He was the guy who had a new girlfriend every week. He even dated girls that were in high school, and according to Joe he had lost his virginity before he was thirteen. If anyone got a girl pregnant, Haley would have thought it was Ben.

When Joey came back, he had a digital camera. He turned it on and started looking through pictures.

"What is that?" Haley was shocked to see Joey with any type of electronic device at all. He still even refused to get an ipod. Heaven forbid anything gets in the way of his precious cd collection. He just carried around a booklet that held fifty cds and his walkman. That was all he needed. He was a simple kind of guy.

"This, Haley dear, is called a ca-ma-ra." That sent Haley into a laughing fit. "You see, you point it at someone and then press this button," he demonstrated as he talked, pointing the camera at her. "And then light comes out and look," he turned the camera around and showed her the picture. It was horrible, but Haley didn't care. She wanted to know why he had a camera. A picture of Ben?

"Here. Look at this one." He flipped through a few more pictures and then showed her one. It was a picture of two guys sitting at a table in some kind of club.

"Who's that?" Joey just laughed.

"That one," he pointed to the guy on the left, "is Ben."

"That's Ben?" The guy Joey was pointing to looked clean, not a word she ever really associated with him. He had short, black hair that was neatly spiked up. He was skinny and smiling at the camera. His face was clear and his eyes lit up as he smiled. Joey noticed her astonishment.

"Yup. That's Ben, alright. When was the last time you saw him, anyway?"

"Before he looked like that!" Joey just laughed, an idea sparking in his head.

"He's gonna be in a town nearby. His band's putting on a concert."

"He's in a band?" Haley almost couldn't believe the transformation. Could three years really do that to a guy?

"Yup. Plays bass."

"Wow. A lot sure has changed." Has a lot changed? Or has he just started taking more showers?

"Hey, I promised him I'd go watch his band play. Wanna come?" Go to a concert? Get away from Nathan? See an old friend? Of course!

"Sure. Anything to get out of this town."


	5. A Concert and IHOP

**Author's Note: **Omg, I'm back. I'm on winter vacation and was bored today so I actually finished this story. I'm pretty sure more of my readers have probably already died of old age seeing as I haven't updated in, literally, years. Well I finished this story (it's not just this chapter I got a bunch more) and was wondering if anyone was still out there. If you are let me know.

The concert was only about twenty minutes away. Haley still couldn't believe that she was hanging out with Joey going to see Ben – gorgeous Ben—in a concrt! She thought back to what she had done last summer. Not much. She hung out with Lucas a lot. They hadn't even had their drivers lisences yet.

Sometimes Haley felt like her parents had made a mistake by moving. Sure she loved Lucas, but things changed when he made the basketball team. It wasn't just him. She had changed too, but now it was like they were only friends because it was comfortable, not because they had a blast spending time together. How could she have spent only a few weeks away from Lucas and now everything was weird; but she had spent years away from Joey, and she was having the greatest time of her life?

"Oh my God. I cannot believe that's you," Haley screeched as she saw Ben for the first time in years.

"Leelee!" he screamed back. "I don't even remember the last time we saw each other!" If it had been three years ago, she would have been grossed out going anywhere near him. Now she totally didn't mind when he scooped her up into a giant hug. She actually kind of enjoyed it.

"Well, it was definitely before the whole taking showers thing." He looked like a totally different person. He sure as hell smelled like a totally different person.

"Ha. I remember those times." Same old Ben. He was always good at making fun of himself.

"Me too! You wreaked, man!" She had almost forgotten that Joey had been standing there the whole time.

"I did not!" Maybe he wasn't _great _at making fun of himself…

"Yeah, you did."

"If someone would have let me know how horrible I smelled back then, I so would have showered," he accused.

"We did try to tell you! We all did. That's when you started wearing that horrible smelling cologne," Joey kicked in.

"Oh yeah! Hey! That got me my first date."

"And you were eleven and starting your reputation as a man whore," Haley pointed out.

"Ha-ha. Well, let's just not get into that." They made eye contact for a few seconds. Something was definitely different about him. The butterflies in her stomach were definitely new, but it wasn't just his looks. Something else had changed about him.

"Wow. I still can't believe that you look like this," she finally breathed.

"Come on! I was not that bad!"

"You used to be so yucky." Ben put on a look of insult that only lasted for a second. After that they both started laughing until another guy from Ben's band –Kyle— called him over. Haley didn't know the other guys in his band. He must have hooked up with a new crowd when they got to high school.

"Okay, well I have to go get ready. We will so continue this discussion later." He pointed his finger at her and narrowed his eyes as if he was really upset. She made a cute, innocent face at him and waved to him as he left. It had been a long time since she had flirted like that. Had she ever really flirted like that.

She turned to grab Joey, but he wasn't there. She wondered how long ago he had left. She didn't see him anywhere, so she was forced to stand by herself. She awkwardly gravitated toward the back of the crowd gathering around the stage so she didn't feel so alone.

It wasn't until halfway through the first band's set that Joey had showed back up. He didn't look so good either. Haley thought he looked pale, but it was hard to tell through the weird lighting.

* * *

"Hey there you are," he said in a monotone voice.

"Yeah, where did you run off to?" she asked.

"What?" he yelled back. He couldn't hear her over the loud music.

"Where were you?" she asked, louder.

"Phone. My parents." That seemed to be the end of the conversation. Haley would have to let it go until the concert was over.

* * *

After the concert, Haley and Joey had followed Ben's band to a local IHOP. Joey was still being quiet, but he wouldn't say what was wrong. Ben sat with the two of them while his band mates sat at a different table.

"How's you get a gig so far away?" Haley asked Ben.

"Steve's brother lives up here. He got us the gig and he's letting us crash at his place for the night."

"Wait, so you're spending the night?" Haley asked.

"Yeah. Nobody's parents were too keen on us driving the three hours home at one o'clock in the morning.

"You should totally spend the night!" she exclaimed.

"Look at you! You little whore! Trying to shack up with two different guys," he laughed.

"Oh come on! You know Joey's like a big brother to me!"

"And what, my dear would I be," he asked, flirtingly as he leaned his chin on his hand and gazed into her eyes.

She mirrored his actions before saying "You could be my bitch." They both burst out laughing.

It took a while before Joey came back to normal. He eventually started joining in on the conversation, adding his sarcastic comments here and there. He still seemed a little distant, but Haley didn't want to push it. Especially in front of Ben.

"Why are you here anyway?" Ben asked Joey. "I thought you usually went up to Australia every summer."

"I just didn't feel like going this year. And since my parents aren't as _awesome _as Haley's parents, they didn't want me staying home alone all summer—"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Haley asked, not sure exactly what Joey meant by her "awesome parents."

"Oh, come on Haley! You're parents are never home. They go out of town like every other weekend."

"Whoa! Haley James! High five! You've got a nice set up for yourself!" He raised his hand, asking for a high five and she almost rolled her eyes instead of giving him one, but changed her mind. Everything she was doing tonight was so unlike her, but she felt like she was finally in her comfort zone. She felt like she could do what she really wanted without being judged as not acting like a tutor girl.

"Hey! It's because I'm mature and responsible! I'm not the one who lost my virginity before I hit puberty!" She still didn't want to be perceived as a slut.

"Hey! I was thirteen!" Ben defended. Haley just stared at him disbelieving. "Almost thirteen!" She just stared. She knew she was right. "You know what?" He paused to point his finger at her, trying to find something smart to say. "Shut up!" He failed.

"Haley does have her own little man douche," Joey piped in.

"No way!" Of course Ben would be excited to get dirt on Haley.

"No, really." Haley started. "No way. He's not a 'man douche.' He's just an asshole ex-boyfriend."

"Atta girl!" Now Joey started to perk up. In all of their conversations, she had kept defending Nathan to keep Joey from bashing his head in. Well now they were twenty miles outside of Tree Hill and his car keys were in her pocket.

"Hey Ben! Let's go," Steve said. He was suddenly standing next to their table. Haley looked over to see the other guys from Ben's band gathering their stuff together. She really didn't want Ben to go. They had barely talked, and if he left now, she might never see him again.

"No! Please come back with us!" she blurted out.

"We're leaving at seven o'clock tomorrow morning. So unless you wanna drive me all the way back down to his brother's house at six o'clock in the morning, I gotta go," Ben replied. He seemed reluctant to go. Haley suddenly got an idea.

"We can drive you home!"

"What?" Ben and Joey both asked.

"Stay for a while, and then we can drive you all the way back home! It'll be awesome! Like a road trip!" Haley shouted. If he really did want to stay, he should be able to.

"Road trip!" Joey shouted.

"Alright. Road trip!" Ben smiled.

After a few minutes of discussion between Ben and Steve, and a quick phone call to Ben's sleeping parents, Ben's band left without him.

"Why on earth would you plan on leaving at seven o'clock in the morning?" Haley asked Ben, finishing up her chocolate milk.

"The only way Kyle's parents would agree to let him play the gig was if he was home for church tomorrow morning."


	6. Chapter 6

"Would you mind if I spent some time on your brother's computer? I just have something I have to check," Joey asked as soon as they got home.

"No, that's fine. Why don't we hang out down here. Just come back down whenever you're done," Haley suggested.

"Alright. I'll see you in a little bit."

"Is Joe okay?" Ben asked when Joe had gone upstairs.

"You know, I don't know. Ever since we got to the club, he's been acting weird," Haley admitted, throwing herself down on the couch.

"He's probably just jealous that he has to share you," Ben smiled. He had a great smirk. Some people couldn't pull off a charming half smile, but Ben could definitely work it.

"Oh my God! You have the fourth season of The Office?" he exclaimed noticing her DVD collection.

"Yeah! I love that show! You watch it?" Haley was surprised that she found someone outside of her family who loved it. No one in Tree Hill appreciated it.

"Duh. It's hilarious. Can you believe Pam is pregnant?"

"I know! It's crazy." They both stopped and looked at each other. "Wanna watch?" Haley finally asked.

"Yes!" Haley put the first disk in the DVD player and they both sat on the couch. She hit 'play all' and the theme song started up. At first Haley felt subconscious. She always whistled along with the theme song, but was afraid that Ben would judge her. She wasn't all too surprised when he started whistling along with it though. She joined him and they sat there watching the first episode.

"So I'm assuming that this is one of those weekends where your parents aren't in town?" he asked during an uneventful scene.

"Yup. You know, I don't think they went out ever when I was younger. They were always chasing boys away from Taylor or bailing Roy out of jail. They were too busy to have a life. Now that it's just me with all of my perfect ness." They both laughed at her feigned self-centeredness. "I guess they got bored."

"It must be nice."

"Sometimes it's nice. Sometimes it's lonely."

"Let me guess. When you're on good terms with you're 'man douche,' it's nice," he inferred.

"Pretty much."

"How did that happen anyway? You used to be awesome."

"Hey!" If their entire new relationship hadn't been based off of banter, Haley would have been offended.

"You know what I mean. You were always the tomboy running around, climbing on things. Causing trouble." They both laughed.

"I guess when Quinn and Vince moved out, and we moved up here it was just different. I was away from my friends for the first time, alone with my parents… I didn't have anyone to cause trouble with. I found one friend here, and he was quiet, liked to read. I guess I just fell in with that."

"Alright so that's how you became little miss perfect. Now how did little miss perfect start dating the bad boy?"

"You really want to know?"

"Of course."

And with that, Haley spent the next two episodes of The Office filling Ben in on Lucas's messed up family, and Nathan's asshole-like ways.

"Haley," Ben whispered, hours later.

"Hmm?" Haley looked up long enough to notice the menu screen on the TV. "Put on another disk."

"Haley. You've been passed out for the last two episodes." Haley sighed and got up. Just standing woke her up a little bit more. She turned off the television and the lights and lead the way to her bedroom.

"Where do I sleep?"

"You can just sleep in here with us. I like to cuddle," she added in jokingly.

"Can I have something to change into?"

"Let me dig through Joey's bag. I'll find you something." After a few seconds of searching, she found a pair of sweat pants. "Here." After handing them to him, she pulled out Joey's camera.

"What's that?" Ben asked after he had changed in the bathroom.

"Joey's camera. He started showing me pictures a couple of days ago and I never got to see the rest."

"Maybe he didn't want you to see the rest."

"That's ridiculous. What wouldn't he want me to see." He sat down next to her in the corner of her bedroom and they looked through pictures of Joey's life. It was mostly just him and his friends. There were also a few pictures of a scraggly little puppy, who almost resembled the Tramp from Lady and the Tramp. "Aw! Is that Malibu?" Haley asked, referring to Joey's family's new puppy.

"Yeah. Isn't she cute?"

"Yeah." Haley had always loved dogs.

"She's crazy though. And if you hold her like a baby and squeeze her, she moans like a cat. It's hilarious," Ben laughed.

"Oh! That's mean."

"Oh she's fine."

"Oh my God!" They were no longer looking at pictures of bonfires and movie nights. Suddenly there was a naked girl across the screen.

"Oh! All right. I think its time you put the camera away."

"Who's that? Jenna?" Haley asked. She was hoping that it was Jenna, the girl Joey had broken up with just days before coming to visit her for the summer. If not, he would have major explaining to do. Maybe he still did.

"Yeah. Wow. Okay. Seriously. Enough. Let's go to bed," Ben insisted, standing up.

"Ew!" Haley suddenly exclaimed.

"What?"

"Oh they get worse."

"You're gonna wake Joe up!" Ben stage whispered.

"Okay. Ew. Ew. Ew! Seriously! Ew!" Haley groaned putting the camera away.

"Come on," Ben started, standing over Haley's bed. Joey was curled up on one side. "How do you want to do this?" he asked.

"You can go in first," Haley suggested innocently, batting her eyelashes.

"Ha ha," Ben scoffed refusing to sleep curled up next to another guy.

"It's not like you have anything to worry about. He's obviously not gay."

"Just go," he said pushing her towards the bed. She climbed in under the covers and he followed behind her. They both lay facing each other. "I'm really glad I came back with you."

"I am too. It was nice to catch up," Haley replied. And she meant it.

"Do you ever think about how different things would be if you didn't move away and became good?"

"I never really did before. But now I do." She sighed and rolled over on her back, really thinking about it. "Like what if I had gone out with Timothy and I had been the one who turned him gay. Or kept him from being gay. Or gotten impregnated by him."

"What?" Ben scoffed and laughed at the same time and it came out sounding like he was chocking. Haley rolled back over to face him.

"Joey told me he knocked up Christine."

"Ha! No." He looked at her and motioned for her to move closer. He whispered in her ear, "He's really gay. She's dating this college guy who did it. She was afraid that Joe would go ballistic so everybody told him that Timothy did it."

Ben pulled his mouth away from her ear, but kept their faces close. They stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds. Just as Ben was about to turn away, Haley attacked his lips with hers. When she pulled away from him, he returned her kiss. They lay there for a few brief minutes before Ben pulled away again.

"We should probably get some sleep," Haley sighed.

"Yeah before Joe wakes up and kills me," he laughed back.

"Goodnight."

"'Night."


	7. Chapter 7

The first thing Ben saw when he woke up the next morning was a girl standing on the foot of the bed, straddling Haley's feet. "Good morning…" He looked over to see his bed buddies still asleep.

"Hi," the brunette said, excitedly.

"Quincy?" Ben asked. It didn't look like her, but he hadn't seen her in years. Maybe she had changed.

"What?" the girl asked, confused.

"Haley," he groaned, rolling towards her closing his eyes again. He pushed at her to wake her up. "There's a girl taking pictures of you." Haley's eyes jolted open.

"Brooke! Go away."

"Hey!" the boys on either side of her exclaimed.

"Go away!" Joey moaned.

"Get out of our bed!" Ben shouted, now fully awake. Joey threw the covers off both him and Haley, causing Brooke to jump out of the bed. Joey picked Haley up by her sides and heaved her over him, rolled over and dropped her off the bed. He then rolled back over, accepted his half of the blanket being offered to him by Ben, and went back to sleep. With the extra room in the bed, both boys had stretched out and therefore had stretched closer together; almost touching.

"Can I have your camera?" Haley asked, after she got up and had seen them. She took more than one picture of the boys in bed together and smiled at herself. Then she turned to Brooke. "How'd you get in here anyway?" she asked as she lead the way out of her bedroom and down the stairs.

"Luke told me your parents were out of town, and you left the front door unlocked. You really shouldn't do that, you know," Brooke suggested as she strutted into the kitchen.

"I was under the impression that Joey was a light sleeper."

"You wanna fill me in, tutor girl? One mysterious gorgeous boy shows up, and now two? What the hell is going on? Did you call an escort service to take the pain off you and Nathan fighting or something?"

"Brooke! They're old friends from where I used to live."

"Wait. Didn't you always live here?" Brooke asked.

"No! Brooke, I only moved here like two years ago."

"Oh. That's cool. I thought I just ignored you all those years."

"Great Brooke," Haley sighed as she poured herself a glass of orange juice.

"So why are all these pretty boys showing up out of nowhere, and can you get me one?"

"No. I was actually going to set Joey up with Peyton, but I'm pretty sure he's not over his ex-girlfriend."

Brooke grabbed an apple off of the fruit platter and asked. "What makes you say that?"

Haley thought of the pictures on Joey's camera and laughed. "Nothing. So what are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to see why you had a pretty boy here. You still didn't answer my question."

"He's an old friend from my old town. He's staying here for the summer."

"And gorgeous boy number two?"

"That's Ben. His band was up here for a concert and he decided to spend the night."

"Wait. So tutor girl went to a concert and brought home the lead singer to sleep in her bed with another boy with an accent? God you and Nathan should break up more often."

"He's not the lead singer, he's the bassist, and he's another old friend of mine. He's gonna stay for a few days and then me and Joey are going to take a road trip to take him back home."

"Ooo! Sounds like fun!" Brooke's eyes lit up with excitement.

"No, you can't come. And no you can't have one of my boys. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go shower."

"Fine. But when pretty boy number three shows up, save him for me, okay?"

"Goodbye, Brooke!" As Brooke left, Haley locked the door.

"Morning dude," Ben greeted as Joey opened his eyes.

"Morning."

"So how's Jenna?" he giggled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Joey asked, defensively, sitting up.

"Chill! It was Haley's idea," Ben exclaimed, thinking Joey was mad about the camera.

"What was?"

"To look through your camera."

"Oh God," Joey groaned, laying back down and covering his eyes.

"Yeah. Well, come on. Get up. Haley wants us to meet her someplace," Ben told him holding the note that told them to meet her at Karen's Café.

"Are you wearing my clothes?" Joey asked.

"Yeah. I guess I could rummage through her brothers' rooms to look for something else to wear. Who's room is next door?" he asked, gesturing out in the hall.

"Roy's."

"Isn't he the one who beat the shit out of you when you were like ten?"

"Yup."

"How big is he now?" Ben asked, wondering if he could steal something of his.

"Bigger than you."

"Fine. I guess I'll just have to go shopping. Maybe Haley'll come with me."

"Hey! Don't go sticking you diseased little thing around my little sister."

"Jeez. Lay off, Joe. It's just shopping. What's your problem anyway?"

"What do you mean?" Joey asked, feigning confusion.

"You were quiet all night, and then you never came down after you were done on the computer."

"I just have a lot on my mind. And I don't want to talk about it."

"Fine. But let's go. I'm starving."

When they were shopping, they held hands. When Ben invited Haley into the dressing room to get her opinion on a shirt, they made out for a good ten minutes. While they walked down the street, they both bore huge grins.

They had gotten smoothies and went down to the River Court to see if Lucas was there. Haley wasn't sure if she was hoping that he was there so he and Ben could meet, or if she was really hoping that he wasn't there so they could be alone. He wasn't there.

The lay next to the river making out as their smoothies melted. After a while, Ben pulled away and rolled over on his back next to Haley.

"Is something wrong?" she asked him.

He sighed. "Do you remember when we talked at Gigi's birthday party, like right before you moved away?"

She thought about it for a few seconds, trying to remember. "We were talking about your whoriness I believe." She laughed lightly. Inside she was completely nervous about what he would say next. She remembered that conversation and now she wanted to know where he was trying to go with it.

"Do you remember when you told me that you wanted to wait until you were married before having sex?" he asked. Haley just kept taking even breaths, trying to stay calm. She had no idea where he was going with this. Maybe he wasn't asking her to have sex like it sort of sounded. She was probably just being paranoid. He wasn't _that _much of a whore. It was impossible.

"Yeah. I remember."

"Well, I just thought I might— I mean that you'd wanna—that I'd tell you that I've sort of adopted that same philosophy," he finally blurted out. Haley was shocked. Could it be a line? She had spent all day talking to him, she felt so close to him. She felt like she knew him. He wasn't a jackass like Nathan was. He wasn't just trying to get her into bed.

"A few months ago," he continued, "something was up. I went to the doctor… I found out that I have an STD." Haley didn't know what to say. What are you supposed to say when the guy you spent the day making out with tells you that he has a sexually transmitted disease?

"Well. I guess that makes sense. I mean… You were always sleeping around…." She almost felt like she was offending him. But it was the truth. "Aren't most of those curable?" Haley was suddenly ashamed at her lack of knowledge on the subject. Sure her mom had given her the talk when she first found Taylor horizontal with a boy, but that was almost ten years ago.

"It's herpes." She suddenly felt the urge to scoot away from him. Images immediately rushed through her head from sex ed. The teacher had given a very vivid slide show. Those images scared her brain and were one of the reasons she had decided to wait to have sex. She didn't want to touch him anymore, but she knew she was being irrational. She had slept in the same bed as him just last night. If it was possible for her to get it, she would have gotten it then.

As if reading her mind, he told her "You can only get it through skin to skin contact. And only during an… outbreak… which I'm… not… having… right now." It was probably the most awkward sentence she had ever heard muttered in her life. It should have made her feel even more uncomfortable, but it did the opposite. She tried to look him in the eye, but he kept his eyes staring straight to the sky.

"Well then," she started, "I guess we'll just have to avoid that." He looked down at her, first in a quick glance, then they eventually shared eye contact. He smiled at her.

"So who else knows?" Haley went back and forth from completely ignoring the fact that she knew about "The Thing" as they had agreed on calling it, and asking him questions about it. Since she hadn't freaked out like he had expected, he agreed to answer any questions about it. Haley was pretty sure that after their first conversation about it, there was now nothing that could make an awkward moment between the two of them.

"Everyone in our group." Haley suddenly had a strike of homesickness. Sure they were in her kitchen, but she missed being in her old town. She really wished they had never moved.

"Hey, tutor girl! Where are you?" Brooke called from the living room. After hearing about The Thing, she immediately thought of Brooke and her dating habits. It really wasn't healthy. She asked Ben if he would talk to her and he readily agreed. He wished someone would have talked to him about it. Maybe he would have done things differently.

"In here, Brooke," Haley called back. "Why don't you sit down. Do you want something to drink?"

"Sure," Brooke replied, confused. Why was Haley being so nice to her. "Tutor girl, are you trying to set me up?" she asked happily.

"Sort of," Haley smiled, getting Brooke a can of pop. "So Brooke, you know how you jump in bed with, well, anyone?"

"Haley!" Brooke looked offended for a brief second, before laughing it off. She grabbed Ben's hand and made eyes at him. "She's over exaggerating. Sort of." Brooke winked, making it official that Haley had not over reacted. Ben just chuckled to himself, pulled his hand away, and looked down.

"Haley wanted me to talk to you. I have herpes. And you could too. Hey! That rhymed!" he excitedly exclaimed to Haley, who high fived him.

"What?" Brooke shouted standing up. "You're trying to ambush me with a safe sex talk? You're the one who slept with two strange guys in her bed last night!"

"Yeah, but I didn't have sex with them." Haley knew she was being a little bit smug, but she was proud of being a virgin. "Look, I know what an amazing person you are and I just don't want to see you end up like him."

"Gee, thanks, hun," Ben laughed.

"No problem, sweetie."

Brooke completely ignored their flirting. "I always use protection! Why—"

"It doesn't matter." Ben's comment stopped Brooke in her tracks.

"What do you mean?" she asked modestly, slinking back into her seat.

"Condoms don't always stop it. And you can go years with having it without having any symptoms."

"Really?"

"I'm gonna go see who Joey's talking to," Haley excused herself. She felt like she had done a good thing. Ben was only sixteen and he was going to have to deal with it for the rest of his life. Maybe they could save Brooke from going through the same thing.


	8. Chapter 8

"Hey," Haley greeted when she saw Joey in her bedroom.

"Hey. So, you know how I'm staying with you all summer?" What kind of response was that?

"See, its things like this that make me wonder, what the hell is wrong with you."

"I know. But first, are you and Ben hooking up?" Joey and Haley had never danced around subjects. Everything was blunt and to the point.

"In a way, I guess. But I mean, we're taking him back in a couple days, so I'm not sure what we're going to do."

"Well I thought it might be cool if we went back to my place. We could stay there for a week. You could spend more time with him."

"That would be really awesome. But I doubt you're parents would go for that. I mean, they sent you here so you wouldn't be alone." It was one more thing that didn't make sense. Joey was going to need to explain everything fast.

"I know. But I talked to them. They said that if your parents were okay with it, we could go back for a week. Their big concerns were me being alone, and me being alone all summer. But if you're there and its just for a week, they said they'd be fine with it."

"All right. That sounds awesome. Tell them to call my parents. I'm sure they'll be fine with it."

"Great," he smiled and sat down on the bed.

"So," Haley prompted.

"All right. You know Jenna?"

"Well, not personally, but yeah."

"Well. She's pregnant."

"What? Are you sure?" That was not what she was expecting.

"Yeah. We were sure before I came here."

"You were what? You've known for weeks and you didn't tell me? How could you do that?" They've been best friends for over ten years! How could he keep something that huge from her?

"I'm sorry. It's just." He sighed. "She had decided that she was going to get an abortion. I was really upset about it. Her parents are from really old money; high class, all about reputations. She really didn't want to do it, but we didn't have a choice. We're sixteen! Neither one of us have ever even had a job before! I've never even changed a diaper before! We can't have kids! Not now at least."

"Wait. She 'was going to get an abortion'? What does that mean? She didn't go through with it?"

"No. She's been talking to an aunt of hers. She's gay. When Jenna's parents and the rest of their family found out, they shunned her. She got married or whatever you want to call it to another woman. I guess Jenna was talking to them and their willing to let us go live with them, at least while we get started."

"What, so now you're dropping out of school to get a job and support a family?" Haley asked. She couldn't believe how much would be changing.

"Not exactly. Everyone in Jenna's family pretended her aunt didn't exist except for one of their old relatives. She thought that the aunt was awesome and everyone else was a bunch of jackasses so she left all of her money to the aunt. Now, she's filthy rich, she doesn't work, and her and her wife love kids. It's perfect."

"So their just going to take your baby and raise it for you?"

"No. There's still some stuff that has to be worked out, but I think it's going to work. I guess we'll stay there and they'll watch it while we finish school. We can both finish a year early. So it'll really only be a few months. Then we'll just go from there."

"I can't believe you're going to be a dad," Haley sighed.

"Probably," Joey pointed out. "Jenna's still deciding. She just really needs me there. And I would still have to talk to my parents. Everything's just so complicated." Joey pulled his feet on the bed, tucked them under him, and buried his face in his hands. He looked so upset, so scared. He had every right to be.

"Hey, don't worry. It's all going to work out. Come here." Haley pulled him into a hug. Everything _would_ work out.

"All right." Joey sighed and sat back up. "I'm just going to call my parents and then call Jenna."

"Okay. I'm gonna go check on Ben and Brooke."

Wait. You left your new boy toy alone with the whore?" Haley laughed.

"Yes. He's lecturing her on herpes."

"Oh, he told you?" He asked without emotion. Normally, he would have been started making fun of her right then and there. Not today.

"Yeah."

"Gross, isn't it." He gave a halfhearted chuckle.

"Yeah," she laughed. "Let me know if you need anything."

"Thanks." Haley got up and started to walk out of the room. Just as she had gotten out into the hallway, she poked her head back into the room.

"Wait. Can I fill Ben in?"

"Sure." With that, Haley bounded down the stairs and ran straight into the kitchen.

"Jenna's pregnant!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down. The thought of her best friend in the whole world becoming a father excited her, which made her hyper, which made her tired, which made her want ice cream to help her be hyper.

"What?" Ben asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. And she might have the baby!" she told as she pranced to the fridge.

"What? How come I didn't know about this?"

"'Cause she was gonna get rid of it, but now she might not!" she sung.

Ben turned his attention to Brooke who had just been sitting there. "See what happens when you have sex?" he told her.

"Thanks a lot Haley. I honestly don't think I'm ever gonna have sex again." Brooke looked bad. Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe she needed a reality shock.

"Your welcome!" Haley said as she grabbed the ice cream from the freezer.

"Yeah. So I'm gonna go," Brooke said, getting up from the table and walking towards the door.

"Bye!" Haley called back

"Bye," Brooke called as she reached the door. Before leaving though, she turned back to Ben. "Hey. And thanks a lot, Ben."

"Wow. She looked a lot different going than coming," Haley observed.

"Ha! That's what she said!" yelled Ben.

"You're ever changing opinion on sex amazes me." Haley took as big of a spoonful of ice cream that she could without giving herself brain freeze. "Baby!" she screamed as if she had turrets.

"I can't believe Jenna's pregnant," Ben said, getting up and grabbing a spoon for himself. "I'm surprised her parents didn't have Joe taken care of." He made a slicing-off-the-head motion with his spoon, and dug into the ice cream, Haley was eating straight out of the carton.

"Yeah, Joey said she comes from a real hoity-toity family."

"Hoity-toity? You're so cute." He laughed.

"Shut up. So what's she like? All I've heard about her is how great she is –when Joey was in love – or what a stubborn bitch she can be – when I guess she was planning on having the abortion. Not very objective opinions."

"Well she is really great. And she can really be a stubborn bitch."

"Wow. You are so helpful. Come on. This is the mother of my future niece we're talking about here!" Haley exclaimed.

"Niece, huh?"

"Yes, niece. And she's going to have an awesome name like Destiny. And I will—"

"Destiny?" Ben laughed.

"buy her pretty dresses." Haley finished her sentence in an angry tone. "What's wrong with Destiny?"

"That's a thing. A made up thing, by the way. Not a name."

"You don't believe in destiny?"

"You want me to believe that it was my destiny to get herpes?" he asked.

"Maybe it was your destiny to get herpes so you stop having sex before you reproduce," she shot back.

"Oh! Ouch."

The back door opened and in came Haley's parents. "Hello!" her mom called.

"Hey mom! Hey dad. How're the peeps?"

"The peeps?" her dad asked.

"You know. The _peeps_le."

"What's got you so riled up?" her mom asked her. She then turned her attention to Ben. "Ben? Wow, you've grown up."

"Hi," he answered shyly.

"High school drama," Haley answered.

"Where's Joe?" Haley's dad asked.

"On the phone. We're gonna go out and get some more ice cream," Haley sang.

"Do you really need more ice cream?" Her mother asked her, knowing how she gets when she's excited.

"Yes," Haley replied in a serious tone. "You are out. We'll be back in a little bit. Joey!"

"I'm right here," he said, coming down the stairs.

"Come on. We're going to get more ice cream!"

"Oh boy," he sighed, knowing the hyperness to come. "Hi guys."

"Hey Joe," both of Haley's parents replied.

"Bye guys!" Haley shouted.

They walked down to Baskin Robins and got a pint of Rocky Road and three spoons. They started eating it as they walked to the River Court. They kept their talking to a minimum while on the busy streets of Tree Hill, but when they were alone at the River Court, Haley started blabbing again.

"I just can't believe you're having a baby!"

"I'm not having a baby. Jenna is. And stop getting me all excited! She might change her mind again!" Joey replied.

"Yeah, by the way," Ben started, "Haley has already decided that you're having a girl and naming it Future."

"Destiny!" Haley corrected.

"Aw that'd be cute." Joey commented. "Desi for short."

"As in Desi Arnes? Lucille Ball's husband?" Ben speculated.

"I think it'd be cute."

"Have you and Jenna talked about names yet?" Haley asked.

"Not really. By the time we knew for sure, she had already talked to her mom about it who had convinced her to have an abortion."

"You guys really should. Wait, first, do you want a boy or a girl?" Haley prodded.

"I don't care. I don't really have a choice in the matter." They all laughed.

"But which would you rather have? Ten years from now, in your ideal world, when you have all five of your kids lined up—" Haley started.

"Five?" Ben asked with his jaw dropped.

"Yeah, five. I always wanted a big family, like Haley's. Minus Roy."

"Anyway!" Haley continued. "When you line up all _five_ of you kids and you look at you oldest, is it a boy or a girl?"

"A girl, I guess."

"Ha! We both want a girl! Up top!" Haley shouted.

"I told you we shouldn't have given her ice cream." Joey told Ben.

"I wanted to see it for myself. And wow," Ben observed.

"I know!"

"Stop that!" Haley interrupted their side conversation.

They heard footsteps behind them. "Haley?" It was Lucas.

"Luke! Hey! What's up?" shouted the overly excited Haley.

"Nothing. Just came to play some basketball. What're you doing here?"

"Eating ice cream. You remember Joe. And this is Ben, my new boyfriend."

"Hi," Lucas greeted.

"Hey," both Ben and Joey said back.

"Do either one of you guys wanna play?" Luke offered.

"No thanks," declined Joey. He had an athletic build, but absolutely no coordination.

"Sure," said Ben.

"You play basketball?" Haley asked, disgustedly.

"Yes I do." Ben got up and took his cell phone out of his pocket and put it on the picnic table on which they were sitting. He got up and went to play with Lucas.

"Yuck," Haley said as she stuck her tongue out at him.

"All right," she continued. "So names. What're her parent's names?"

"Donald and Emily. And her names actually Jennifer."

"Very conservative." They both made faces. "What's her aunt's name?" Haley asked.

"Hannah, but I guess everyone calls her Ziggy." They both laughed.

"A lesbian named Ziggy?"

"Yup."

"Wow."

"Yeah, and—" Joey tried to continue.

"Wait." Haley looked up at the basketball game going on. Ben had the ball and was about to shoot. "Hey Ben! Jenna's lesbian aunt's name is Ziggy!" He completely missed the shot and Lucas stole the ball. "Yes! You're welcome Luke!"

"You're crazy," Joey laughed.

"I know! And I'm almost out of ice cream. But we can pick up some more one the way home. But you were saying."

"You're going to get a stomach ache. But anyway. I guess her lesbian lovers name is Jinger. With a 'J'"

"Oh my God! Like that kid on the show with twenty one kids?" Haley asked.

"Yup."

"Huh." Haley paused. "All right. So her parents are gonna want you to name it something boring, like Beth. Or Anne."

"Most likely."

"You should name it something boring, but something that has a really cool nickname." Haley suggested.

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Or maybe you could name her like Savannah, but tell her parents you named her Anna."

"Well if we're going to lie, why don't we just name her Mufasa and tell them we named her Anna."

"Well that would be stupid. Mufasa's a boy name." Haley made a face, and Joey laughed. They both knew she was being ridiculous, but inside, Joey was just as excited as she was about maybe having the baby.

"Oh my God! If it's a boy, can you please name him Peter?" Haley asked.

"Peter? As in Peter Parker?"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Seriously though. We need to stop this. She might not even keep the baby," he decided.

"Fine. How about I think of the coolest names ever and make a list of them in my phone," she suggested, pulling out her phone. She opened it up and began playing with it.

"Fine."

"Ooo! I got a good one!" she shouted, typing into her phone.

"What?"

"I'm not gonna tell you."

"Fine." It really was better that way.


	9. Chapter 9

"Hey. So I was talking to Ben, and we thought that it would be cool if we went back early," Haley told Joey the next morning.

"Like how early?" he asked.  
"Like today."

"Really?" Haley could tell that he was excited.

"Yeah. All you're doing is freaking out and that's no fun. We'll go back; you and Jenna can make a real decision, and then get on with your life. Whether you're going to be a father or not, you deserve to know."

"That sounds awesome. What time do you wanna go?"

"I was thinking after lunch. I've gotta go see somebody first." Nathan had texted Haley at two in the morning asking her to stop by his house. He said he really needed to talk.

"Oh really?" Joey asked, pointedly, assuming it was Nathtan.

"Yup," Haley called as she walked out of the room.

"And who might that be?"

"Nathan," she yelled back, already in the hall.

"Oh _really_?"

"Yup. Tell my boyfriend when he wakes up. Will you?"

"Sure."

Haley walked the few blocks to Nathan's house. Outside was a big moving truck. Nathan was standing outside.

"Hey, Nathan."  
"Hey. How are you?" he asked awkwardly

"I'm pretty good. What's going on? Is your mom moving out?" Haley asked, knowing about the divorce she was trying to get.

"Yup. And I'm going with her." Nathan squinted to look at Haley through the sun.

"Really? Where to?" Haley was confused. She had never thought that Nathan would escape from Dan's clutches.

"Wisconsin."

"Why?" That was halfway across the country.

"Things are just too complicated here. With my dad and everything. My mom has some relatives out there that she hasn't seen in a really long time. Mostly because they can't stand my dad." They both grinned, thinking about how nobody could really stand Dan.

"So you're spending the summer out there?" Haley asked, for reasons she wasn't sure of.

"No. We're moving out there. For good." Duh. He already said that.

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"Packers," she blurted out.

"What?" Nathan asked, confused.

"That's their football team."

"Oh."

"I'm sorry you have to do this." She really was. She was proud of him for making the decision. It would probably do him good. She was going to miss him though. Maybe.

"I think it's for the best. Get away from my dad and the mess he's made. Start over again. Maybe play basketball for fun. Get some real friends."

"It still must be scary to start over so close to graduation."

"I still have two years left. Maybe I can make them count."

"I hope you can."

"Me too."

"Well, I'm… sorry things didn't work out," Haley said, not knowing what else to say.

"Yeah. Me too."

"Cheese," came her word vomit again.

"Huh?"

"They like cheese there."

"Oh."

"Well, I guess I'll see you around." Haley laughed at herself for making their goodbye awkward. Better to laugh than run away embarrassed.

"Not really," he reminded her.

"Right."

"Well. Goodbye."

"Bye." She turned around to leave.

"Wait. I'm sorry I was such an asshole."

"It's alright," she said. And it really was. "Good luck."

"Thanks."

When Haley got back to her house, her mom was feeding her guests.

"Good morning boys. Mother."

"Hey Sweetie. Where were you?" he mom asked.

"Saying goodbye to Nathan," she replied with a smile.

"What? Like a breakup thing?" Joey asked.

"Nope. He's moving away with his mom."

"Well, good for him. That father of his is such a psychopath." Haley had to laugh. Her mother was out of town most of the time, but still knew what an ass Dan Scott could be.

"Definitely."

"Hey, mom, we were thinking about heading back today."

"Alright. Do you know when you're leaving?" Haley's mother asked.

"Probably lunchtime."

"Well I'm going to garden. Say goodbye before you leave," she said as she left.

"Alright."

They had only been in town for twenty minutes before Ben and Haley were left alone at Joey's house while they were out talking. Ben was on the computer, and Haley was reading a book. Maybe it wasn't the best way to spend what little time they had left together, but it was nice just to be together.

"Do you remember in the third grade, when we went out?" Ben asked.

"Yes," Haley said, not sure where Ben was going.

"Do you remember when I tried to kiss you and you ran down the street screaming 'You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!'?" he laughed.

"Sounds familiar," Haley admitted, embarrassedly. She didn't remember why she had done it, but she had.

"'Today I saw a man being chased down the street by a cop. He was yelling " you can't catch me I'm the Ginger bread man." I laughed so hard I cried. My life is average.'"

Haley laughed but said, "I hate those things. They're never actually average."

"Yeah, but they're so funny."

"True," she admitted.

"You're nervous aren't you?"

"Why would I be nervous?"

"'Cause you want them to have the baby."

Haley threw her book down. Of course she did. "So?"

"So, you're nervous."

Haley sighed and picked her book back up. She didn't like him stating the obvious. "So."

"You can't expect them to make a desiscion over night."

"I can too. Shh! Here they come!" she said as Jenna and Joey opened the front door.

"Alright. We've decided," Joey started. Haley assumed they had decided not to have it and looked disapointeed. "Oh, don't look at me like that." Did that mean they had decided to have it? Haley got excited. "Don't look at me like that either."

"Today's Wednesday. We've made an appointment with the doctor on Monday to have an ultrasound and a check-up. We aren't saying this desiscion's final. We have until Friday at five o'clock to schedule an abortion. If we don't schedule it before then, then it costs like twice as much and it's a lot grosser. So right now, we're having the baby, but we have until Friday before the desiscion's final."

The next day crept by slowly. At first, Haley was excited about the baby. Then they changed their minds and decided to get rid of it. Then they changed their minds back. She was beginning to be afraid to keep her hopes up. She could only imagine what Joey was going through. Haley knew how much he wanted that baby, and she could see how stressed he was over Jenna constantly changing her it was not like her at all to go back and forth with a disicion.

Meanwhile, Ben was trying his hardest to keep Haley occupied. He didn't obsess over the situation as Haley did. Whatever Joey and Jenna decided to do, he would support them. He just didn't see the point in thinking about something – something that wasn't even going to affect him – every second of the day. He wanted to spend as much time with Haley as he could before she went back home. They couldn't decide what they were going to do when she went back home. Long distance relationships never lasted, but Haley felt weird labeling what she ahd with Ben as a fling. It was more than that.

On the morning of the Decision Day, everything that Jenna and Joey had talked about went out the window for Jenna. She was acting as if she had just found out she was pregnant and only had a few hour to make the decision.

It was four oh three in the afternoon when Jenna decided to have the abortion. After she told Haley and Ben, her and Joey went to his room to call the doctor.

"Wait," Haley called to Joey as Jenna walked in the other direction. "Have you even told her how you feel about everything?" Haley whispered. She knew that Joey really did want the baby. She knew that he would be an awesome father, too.

"It's not my decision, Haley," he whispered back. "It's her body, it's her aunt, it's her baby."

"It's your baby, too! It's a decision the both of you have to make. I'm not telling you to go in there and tell her what to do. I'm just saying that you should at elast let her know how you feel. I just think that if you keep your mouth shut, you'll regret it."

Joey didn't say anything. He just sighed and followed after Jenna. When he got to his room, she was sitting on his bed, holding the phone.

"Wait," Joey started. "Before you call, can we just talk about it?"

"What's there to talk about? We can't do this, Joe. We're only sixteen."

"It's just. I really think we can do this. I know we're young, and I know that it's gonna be hard, but come on! We both love a challenge!"

"It's not that easy, Joe. This is the rest of our lives we're talking about! While everyone's graduating, we'll be working and taking courses at a community college. While all of our friends are going off to college, we'll be changing diapers. It's the end of our childhood! No more running around, just thinking about ourselves. Everything will change."

I've been thinking about this a lot. And I know we could do it. And I really want this kid. You're the one who has to make the final decision, because there's no way I could do it without you. But I promise right now, that I'm gonna love you forever, and I'm gonna do whatever I have to to take care of you. And I know that ten years from now, we're going to be married and live in a big house, with a picket fence, and a tire swing hanging off the tree. And I know we're going to have those five little kids. To me, the only difference is if we start our family today, or we wait until after high school." By the time Joey had ended his speech, he had tears in his eyes. So did Jenna. He really meant every word that he said, and he was glad that he said it. Haley was right. Now that he said everything that he had been thinking for the past two weeks, he knew that he would have regreted it if he hadn't.

Jenna just sighed, and laid down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. She glanced at the clock. Four fifteen.

"Look. We still have some time before we have to make the call. Can I just think about this a little bit more?"

"Of course." With that, Joey climbed into bed next to her, held her hand, and stared at the clock.

"I can't believe we're not having a baby!" Haley groaned to Ben while they sat in the living room.

"Why are you so upset by this? Maybe its not their _destiny _to have a baby yet."

"I know Joey really wanted this. It would have been exciting too."

"What is with every girl's obsession with babies?" Ben asked with a laugh.

"I don't know. Some kind of hormone."

At Five oh five, Joey walked out of his room holding the phone. Haley immediately sat up, thinking that maybe Joey had really talked to Jenna and now they were gonna have the baby.

Jeoy just sighed. "I'm pretty sure that was the hardest phone call I've ever had to make in my life."

Haley's face immediately fell. They had made the call and now Jenna was going to have the abortion.

"Yeah. I've never heard my mom screa, like that," he said looking down, with a smile. "But hey. It's not every day you hear that you're going to be a grandma."

Haley screamed, jumped up and ran into Joey's arms. They were going to have the baby!

"Thanks a lot, Haley," he whispered into her ear.

"Congradulations, man," Ben added in, shaking Joey's hand.

Joey and Jenna had asked Haley to go along with them to the sonogram. It was afterall, because of Haley that the baby was going to be born. At first, Joey was afraid that Jenna really didn't want the baby and was just doing it because he said that he wanted it. They had talked, though, and she said that what he said had really made a lot of sense. She really wanted the baby, too. She just needed to know that she wasn't going to have to do it alone.

The first image that showed up on the screen was blurry, eventually Haley could pick out a head shaped blob. When the technician did some adjusting on the screen, a sound came out. It was supposed to be the baby's heartbeat. It sounded fast, irregular.

Haley knew that a fetus's heatbeat was supposed to be fast, but it sounded wrong. Immediately, the technicians face fell. She took the stick off of Jenna's stomach and turned the screen towards herself.  
"What?" Jenna asked, panicked. "What's wrong?"

Haley could only think of how awful it would be if something was wrong with the baby. She would be responsible for it.

The technicians face drew together in a concesntrated stare. She put the stick back against Jenna's stomach and moved it around. When she got to one area of Jenna's stomach, the heartbeat began to sound normal. The same happened when she moved it to a different area of her stomach. After a minute, she typed some things in to the machine, and turned it back towards Jenna. Haley could actually see the outline of the baby. The technician had froze two separate pictures.

"This," she put the stick on one side of Jenna's stomach and the regular heartbeat started up. She pointed to the picture on the left side of the screen. "is Baby Girl A. And this," she moved the stick to the other area and pointed to the other picture. "is Baby Girl B. You ma'am, are carrying what look like to be identical twins."

Suddenly, her petty problems with Ben didn't seem to matter. Jenna was carrying identical twin girls, and from the looks on their faces, neither Jenna or Joey could be happier.


End file.
